Haggis Talks ‘Bond 22’

During a press outing for his latest film In the Valley of Elah, Paul Haggis talked a bit about the writing he’s doing for the upcoming James Bond 22.

Haggis first touched upon how rewarding writing for the character of James Bond is, saying that “Bond is just pure imagination; you just get to have fun. It’s escapism and it’s fun, but I try to ground him as a human being”.

Delving deeper, Haggis talked about how he feels his version of Bond is different from others:

“My Bond is an actual assassin; when he kills someone, he kills them with a knife, they’re bloody and he pays a price. He denies that he pays a price, but he does. When he sees a woman who witnesses something horrific, and he sees her taking a shower, he doesn’t just go in there and f*ck her, like the old Bond would have done. He sits there with her, and she says, ‘I can’t get this blood from my fingernails.’ So he helps her get the blood from her fingernails; that’s what he does, that’s my Bond. So it’s a different guy; it’s a guy who’s much more like these guys, these heroes (in ‘Valley of Elah’).”

Though details of the storyline are being kept under wraps, Haggis did let slip that the story will take place almost immediately after Casino Royale (this was hinted at in the past): “It picks up 2 minutes after the last one, and it’s going to be fun.”

James Bond 22 (still untitled), with Daniel Craig returning to portray James Bond, will hit theaters on November 7, 2008. It’ll be directed by Marc Forster.